Conditions Ripe for More M&A Activity: Citi Exec

The United States is in the midst of a mergers and acquisitions recovery that nobody is really talking about it, Mark Shafir, global head of M&A at Citi, told CNBC on Friday.

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"We're talking about a $3 trillion dollar-plus market up roughly 25 plus percent. The reason people are nervous about it is we haven't seen the big transformative transactions—the $10 billion dollars north deals," Shafir said.

"Until we see that, I don't think people aren't going to be truly comfortable that we're in a major recovery in M&A," he said.

"It's been about confidence and I think this year we're going to see it," he said.

"Look at the cash on the books. I saw a number like $2 trillion dollars today, just in North America. You have decent valuation levels; you have bifurcation between the have and have nots; a lot of private equity dry powder—very attractive credit conditions," Shafir said.

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"We've come through a horrible period. There's a lot of new regulation out there that really affects financial services, so that has a bit of a damper.

But all you can do is lay out for them [CEO's] what the opportunity set is and just how compelling some of this stuff really looks and the rest of it will take care of itself," he said.

Nobody wants to make a mistake, according to Shaif, and the macro conditions have been particularly daunting up to this point.

"But, again, when you look at a set of conditions, it looks to me like an inflection point or a tipping point. We're either there or close, I do think we'll see it," he said.